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Little Raven
Green skin. Orange hair. Long tusks. That’s all a girl no older than six summers tried to visualize when the young man who exceeded her by several years described it. Monstrous trolls with green warty skin, coarse orange hair, and long severe tusks ambushed their parents. Both youths were sitting on a mattress in a small bedroom saturated with red light from the setting sun. The girl’s robin egg blue dress was sprawled over her crossed legs. The young man hunched over the edge with his hands interlaced between his knees. His eyes stared steady at her. She gulped. “They were most likely cannibalized. Do you know what that means?” She could tell he wasn’t expressing half of what stormed inside him, and it bothered her. His brows were furrowed and tone grim – measured as if teetering on the brink of hysteria. The girl shook her head and fair locks swayed pass her rump. The young man drew a ragged sigh. “It means they’re never coming back.” Tears had streaked down round, plushy cheeks, and snot glossed the philtrum above her puckered frown. The front of her dress was wet, and for a split second she wondered if this would be the last she’d wear since the others were tattered from playing in dirt. Mama’ wouldn’t be able to tailor new ones. Mama’ wouldn’t be there at all. The redness of her brother’s eyes and how tight his jaw clenched hinted that something about this was horribly, horribly wrong. Yet she still could not grasp the entirety of its weight, whatever it was. She peeped, “Do… Do we have to live with strangers, now?” His frown deepened and black waves of hair shook with his head. “No. You’re staying with me. Right here in the home we’ve always had. I’ll take care of both of us.” He gave her that look again, this time she jumped. “But that means you’ll have to start growing up. I’m going to need your help just as much as you’ll need mine. Do you think you can do that for me?” Falene nodded with haste. “I don’t want you cannibalized, too, Fen! I want to stay with you!” She almost threw her arms out for a hug, but refrained. That would’ve been very baby-like of her, and there was no room for that, anymore. Fen—she meant, Fenix—would not have approved. Something she said made him blink at her, baffled. He then dipped his head and massaged his temples. “Will the trolls come for us, too?” The question tasted gross in her mouth and her stomach became upset. It also prompted an outcry from the flustered boy: “Not if I can help it! Those juju-suckin’ fucks will pay for our parents! For our people!” Falene gasped. It wasn’t often she heard obscenities come from her brother – a discipline enforced by mama’ and papa’, no doubt. She saw that this would also need adapting to. The mattress creaked as Fenix stood on his feet. Falene plunged both hands in the blankets and leaned forward, ready to follow him out the door had he decided to sate his revenge right then and there. At least, she thought she was ready. Thankfully, such was not the case, at least for now. The older sibling walked to a dresser against the wall across from them. Resting on top was a quiver full of arrows. One of which just had the feathered fletching finished and poked out further from the rest. Fenix slipped it out, pinched its shaft between his forefinger and thumb, and displayed it in a perfectly horizontal line before Falene. The girl’s eyes crossed at it through blurred tears. “This is a valuable tool that’ll help protect us, as it always has. I’m going to teach you how to use it with respect.” His full lips forced an uneven grin. “That means no more of this.” An forefinger directed Falene's knowing sight to the ceiling. In it above his bedside desk were a series of pinholes. Poked deep and so close together, they formed lines over the soft wood. About a month earlier, Falene snuck inside Fenix’s room with one intention: Misbehavior! Specifically, playing a trick on her poor, hapless brother who left his domain unguarded while running an errand. A pink chickpea nose popped from behind the open door-frame, followed by a pair of twinkling eyes. Falene surveyed the room from the hallway, searching for a target of particular interest, a pawn for her diabolical scheme. Anything would suffice, really. She wasn’t particularly picky. Eyes locked on Fenix's favorite quiver resting in its typical location on the bureau. Head tucked and toes tipped, Falene went in for the kill. On soundless feet she crept across the hollow floorboards. Having dragged a chair over from the work bench, she climbed it to retrieve the instrument. A congratulation was in order; preventing the arrows from spilling was a success! Hooking its leather strap over her shoulder, she crawled down. The quiver hanged low under her arm. Its base brushed against the ground as she returned the chair, pushing it into place beside the bench for another ascension. Once settled atop the desk and quiver rested beside her feet, one shaft was extracted at a time. She balanced on the tips of her stubby toes and twisted the arrowheads deep into the ceiling with nocks pointing at the floor. She continued this pattern, grabbing and jabbing arrow after arrow, avoiding snags of hair in the process. Deeming the objective complete, she sat down and admired her craftsmanship up above. Reveling had to be brief, however. The time-span for Fenix’s absence was unknown, and Falene did not want to be caught prematurely. From afar, she’d note how long it’d take before the young man realized her audacity. The look on his face alone would be worth the labor, hopefully. She giggled in anticipation. Days transpired. Fenix went about his chores and hobbies as usual. A large sheet of parchment with small weights on each corner sprawled across his desk. Spine hovered and brush motioned in hand, he illustrated the landmarks and coordinates of a map. A particle catching the afternoon sunlight from the window drifted down and rested on the tip of his angular nose. Puzzled, his eyes crossed and focused on it before he tilted his chin to trace its descent. Sterling eyes widened, tugged by the sharpened arch of his dark, shapely brows. Although his jaw remained relaxed, a faint snap sounded from his balled fist. The slim handle of the utensil had halved under the pressure. As though it possessed a consciousness that loomed over him, what seized his view was the outline of a large, stylized heart. Between motes that continued to fall from the loosened material in the ceiling, Fenix guesstimated its measurements were eighteen inches in both height and width. His neck cranked to face the bureau. Sure enough, his quiver was void of all, painstakingly hand-crafted arrows. “No more raven games.” Falene’s attention sling-shot back to the present. His eyes were as stern and rigid as his voice. “Got it, little raven?” Falene blinked at her elder brother and nodded, well accustomed to being referenced as such. She recalled a time when she had asked, “Why ‘raven’?” To which he grinned, “Because they’re notorious tricksters. Like you.” The pet-name had been swiftly adopted with a fondness by her. But now she could no longer be Fenix’s little raven or play her little raven games. From this day forward, she was tasked to grow up and help protect what was left of their family and home. Fenix was going to teach her everything he knew about archery, his most favored hunting method. She’d learn to… cannibalize. By his definition, that meant they’d make the trolls go away and never return to their troll children. Right? Falene got the sudden feeling that her happiness as she knew it had ended. That things around her were going to get harder. But soon it wouldn’t matter much, anymore. Mama' and papa' were gone. Fenix’s voice echoed in her mind: They’re never coming back. Never? Never will she have the chance to say, 'goodbye’. Or see their faces for the last time before they left on patrol. It was early dawn while their children still slept, utterly clueless. She never will. Even as she considered this, the most recent memories of mama' and papa' escaped her. What were the last things they did? Which one tucked her into bed, or washed the dishes after supper? “Good. We’ll start tomorrow. I’ll show you how to make your own bow and arrows. And then how to use them. Breakfast will be on you.” Fenix winked and cupped a wiry hand on his sister’s crown before gathering his equipment to fix their next meal. This is how life would look from now on. Falene questioned exactly how much he trusted her to catch anything of substance. What if she lost the arrow? Or if she missed and made an opening for the animal’s escape? Now she wished she hadn’t glued all of Fenix’s new arrows to the base of his quiver. Category:Stories